Senior Deputies Dailey, Logsdon fatally shot Wednesday in Abingdon

Residents, law enforcement members and others braved the freezing cold to attend a candlelight vigil in memory of two Harford County Sheriff's Office deputies who were fatally shot Wednesday in Abingdon. Senior Deputy Patrick Dailey and Senior Deputy Mark Logsdon were the first from their office to be shot and killed in the line of duty since 1899.

To show their respect for the fallen deputies, dozens of people gathered Thursday night outside the Sheriff's Office's Southern Precinct for a candlelight vigil. Each person there came to honor Dailey and Logsdon in their own way.

"These guys don't get to go home and see their kids," said Bridget Highkin, who organized the vigil. "It just reminds you that every day you just never know."

A steady stream of people also added to a growing memorial outside the Panera Bread restaurant in Abingdon, where the deadly confrontation began.

WBAL-TV\Jayne Miller

The Sheriff's Office said Dailey was shot inside the restaurant by David Evans, 68. Evans then shot Logsdon in a shootout not far from the Panera Bread before he was shot and killed by deputies.

As the sun set on Thursday, a motorcade escorted Logsdon and Dailey back to Harford County. Once darkness fell, dozens of candles were lit.

WBAL-TV\Bob Moore

"I don't think we've had an officer down since 1899," Victor Buchwald, who attended the vigil, said. "For a Harford County deputy, for two in one day, it's just incredible. We're a community that comes together in times of need."

Both deputies served in the military: Dailey served in the Marines and Logsdon in the Army.

Dailey was also a lifetime member of the Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Co. He was a 30-year veteran of the Sheriff's Office who was assigned to the Court Services Division and was looking forward to retirement.

"He was doing court work because it seemed easier, safer, and it clearly proved it wasn't, because he was the kind of officer that went where he was needed," said Tabitha Penn-Salmina, who helped organize the vigil.

Dailey leaves behind his girlfriend, two sons and his mother. Logsdon spent 16 years with the Sheriff's Office and was assigned to the Community Services Division. He is survived by his wife, three children and parents.

"Aside from police officers, these were just two guys, that had families, that had lives, and I just couldn't imagine, to get that news," Highkin said.

Friday night, more than 100 people gathered at the Panera to show support for the Sheriff's Office, compassion for the families and a resolve to get through the trauma together.

"When I found out about the incident, I felt like I was punched in the stomach," said Becky Mangano, who organized Friday night's vigil.

Candles flickered against the night sky, and many let out cries of despair as they remembered Dailey and Logsdon.

"We can choose to keep the memory of the flaming candles we hold before us as a solemn reminder of the sacrifice that Pat Dailey and Mark Logsdon took on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 11:45, and the privilege it was to know each of them," Mangano said.

"It's going to take a while, and even then, it's like when you get cut, it eventually turns into a scar, but the scar is still there, so keep us in your prayer and thoughts," said the Rev. Franklin Roth, chaplain with the Harford-Cecil Volunteer Fire Co.

I-Team: Investigators trying to piece together gunman's background

In the background of Wednesday's shooting were long-running allegations of domestic abuse involving Evans and his estranged family. Investigators are now trying to learn whether there was any record that could have provided better clues about the man in the restaurant.

In an interview with the 11 News I-Team, Evans' estranged son, Jeremie Evans, said he, his siblings and his mother, David Evans' ex-wife, knew David Evans to be an unstable, abusive man with guns.

"Historically, there was abuse in their relationship. We grew up and my father was extremely abusive towards my mother. (He) hit my mother all the time, threatened her. When they left Georgia to come to Baltimore -- they are from Baltimore -- he followed her here. He stalked her," Jeremie Evans said.

It was David Evans' ex-wife who got sheriff's deputies to the restaurant Wednesday. She went to the Sheriff's Office in person, she said, to tell them she saw David Evans in the restaurant, and she was concerned about her family's safety.

The Sheriff's Office told the 11 News I-Team on Saturday that it received one call on Jan. 6 in reference to David Evans being in the area and possibly wanted. The call was handled out of the Southern Precinct and remains under investigation.

On New Year's Eve in 1996, the 11 News I-Team has confirmed, David Evans' ex-wife was shot and wounded in an Abingdon neighborhood not far from the shopping center where Wednesday's shootings took place. She was grazed in the neck and treated at a hospital. The investigating agency, she said, was the Harford County Sheriff's Office.

The Sheriff's Office told the I-Team on Saturday that, at the time, the victim could not identify where the shot had come from or conclusively identify the shooter. Almost immediately, detectives identified David Evans as as a suspect.

The Sheriff's Office had asked the public to help find David Evans, as 11 News reported two months after the incident in March 1997.

Investigators determined that David Evans had fled the area. Without sufficient evidence and probable cause, he remained a suspect but was never charged in the crime, the Sheriff's Office said.

One question that may never be answered is why was David Evans at the Panera Bread with a gun? The 11 News I-Team asked that question of Jeremie Evans, who said he thinks David Evans was waiting for his ex-wife to come back.

The 11 News I-Team has learned that investigators are now pouring through current and old records, some on microfilm, trying to piece together what the agency knew about David Evans and when. Was there something that could have been known to give the deputies Wednesday a better picture of the man they had to encounter?

The Sheriff's Office told 11 News on Friday that it is using WBAL-TV's records through 11 News scripts from 20 years ago to track the investigation of that shooting.